Wisconsin Central Boxcar

Spent considerable time recently weathering this Wisconsin central boxcar. I first faded down the brown with my oft-used method of spraying with ModelFlex Concrete Gray.  That's for the panels and ribs, but then I darkened down right beside the ribs with hand brushed Ivory Black thinned with water. Vertical brush strokes only for that.  Scratch marks on the ribs are done with Burnt Umber.

The graffiti is a Microscale decal.  I used a brand new Xacto blade to very carefully slice the decal vertically beside many of the ribs, and horizontally at the bottom of the door and the door track.  I also used lots of Solvaset to get the decal to settle down properly.  And I do mean lots of it.

On this side of the boxcar, the lighter coloured patches to the left of the door are decal trim film.  Once I was finally satisfied with the fading, grime streaking and decal applications (and that certainly took me a while), I sprayed all along the lower portion of both sides (and the ends) with ModelFlex Rail Brown to grime it up. This really helps to flatten down and age the graffiti decal that's on the other side.

I wish that boxcar was mine, but it belongs to another local modeller.

For something a little different, I think I should be able to get a start on this little project sometime relatively soon. If or when I do get going on it, I'll put up the occasional progress picture.  For now though, certain areas do look to be rather daunting.

I sent away a photo from the layout and had this paint-by-numbers made.  Comes with the canvas, 24 paint colours and 3 different brushes.  Something to do without having to be in the basement.